Monthly Archives: April 2016

After April’s turbulence, we could all benefit from grounding. Thank goodness that’s coming with the Taurus New Moon. It’s a cornucopia of free-flowing earth energy that promises to stabilize many an emerging situation and plant our feet on terra firma.

The cosmic current of a grand trine is coursing from the Moon to bigger-is-better Jupiter and Pluto the transformer and agent of unavoidable change. The contact to Jupiter in Virgo alone would be sufficient to blast this Moon cycle with the energetic equivalent of Miracle Gro. With Pluto involved, the effect is not only supercharged, but it’s also reaching deep into structures, foundations and our very beings, through cracks that have opened over the past four years or so. Enhancing the reach even more is Jupiter and Pluto’s retrograde status, which makes them operate as cosmic backhoes, pulling back surfaces, exposing buried layers to the air and sending nourishment to the depths.

The process may uproot a plant or two, of course. On the whole, though, this Moon favors the future. It’s particularly blessing situations and structures that have been emerging from the upheaval of recent years. This Moon is refining and improving, cleaning and fortifying. It’s fertilizing developments that are already in progress, even if hidden from view or our conscious awareness.

Trust that’s happening. You can certainly work with it and direct its light to projects and other targets of your choosing. But mostly, relax and let nature take its course. She’s on the job, and how. Not only is the Taurus Moon ruled by Venus, goddess of all we value (love, money, creativity, our precious baubles), but our cosmic hostess is lounging happily in her home sign as well. Venus in Taurus is in no hurry to go anywhere or do anything, so watch sociability relax into a leisurely pace that presents each moment as containing all the time in the world. (Five planets being retrograde play a role in this as well.)

Her presence in Taurus heightens the physical potential of this New Moon, as well as its organic effortlessness. She delights in the sensuality of existence and is not inclined to raise a finger, unless to lift a delicious morsel to her lips. She is no longer on the prowl, as she was while in Aries last month, but trusts that her needs will be both fulfilled and brought to her.

They’re likely to come via her consort Mars, ruler of our will and drive (and representative of the masculine). He’s not exactly on lovey dovey terms with Venus at the moment. The pair are weathering one of those staticky patches that requires maneuvering and making allowances. Getting what we want (and getting along with others) requires an adjustment in how we’re going about it — and probably in how we are viewing situations. Mars’ and Mercury’s retrogrades are affording ample opportunity to revisit conversations, decisions, information streams (maybe it’s time to shut it off to and from parties out who are not at the core of situations?), previous actions and underlying assumptions and beliefs.

Take your time. Think like a cow chews, leisurely ruminating on each bite. Enjoy the sight and sound of the backhoes, the signs of growth, the sweet tastes of early harvests. Eat, drink and be glad you’re in this body, on this plane. Smell the roses; smell the coffee; breathe deep from the garden (and kitchen) of your life. It’s in a growth spurt. Let it blossom into glory. Learn more in my astro-overview for 2016.

“Relax, don’t do it, when you want to go to it.” — Relax, Frankie Goes to Hollywood

When time slows to a crawl this month or, worse, life renders you motionless and you find yourself wishing for movement, action, anything, please remember the mania of March and April. And count your blessings.

Which is not to say that May won’t be hopping, at times. It will, so much so that you will have moments of gasping for breath and begging for a break. When one comes around (and opportunities will abound May 7 – 13), take it and indulge, shamelessly. Otherwise, stock up on stamina, pacing, being in the now — all are qualities that serve you well in May’s singular energies.

Progress is occurring, just not in a predictable or forward-ho manner. The biggest instances of growth and movement will come from matters returning for revisiting, revising, fleshing out and simply more attention. They dominate the first third of the month, when the uncommonly high number of five planets is retrograde.

Even as that count begins to lessen (with Jupiter stationing direct on May 11), the retrospective, redoing vibe remains. Its benefits are many. Going back over old turf or reviving old matters allows for redoing, repairing, rearranging, improving and catching information, details and nuances that make a difference. Dig in the same spot long enough and you may hit paydirt, or discover buried treasure, or strike oil. Or maybe just remove debris that’s crowding out new growth.

Opportunities to solidify, ground and let nature take its course abound around the Taurus New Moon on May 6. It creates an unimpeded current of practical, tangible, growth-oriented earth energy running from the New Moon to bountiful Jupiter in Virgo and transformative Pluto in Capricorn. The effect lasts the whole moon cycle, and spills over into social and financial matters when Venus takes the Moon’s position May 9 and 10.

The line-up is a cosmic invitation to lounge in the garden of life. Enjoy the physical sustenance and pleasures it offers. Look for signs of growth, flourishing and even harvest, and give yourself over to the sensations. Think of yourself as a spiritual being having a physical existence (you’ve heard that saying, right?), or a bridge between spirit and matter. Put your attention on the here and now, and revel in it.

Life slides focus to here and there by the Sun’s annual move to Gemini on the 20th and the Sagittarius Full Moon the next day, with action hero Mars retreat’s taking him right into the festivities. No happy-go-lucky Sag party, this one;we’ll be defending beliefs, or acting aggressively on them or otherwise living out the phrase “fighting words.”

The backward trend will not noticeably loosen until Mercury goes direct on the 22nd. (Read what this month’s Mercury retrograde bodes here.) Despite communication and travel matters gradually returning to more familiar contours, the vibe of going back over old territory will only intensify from the 27th through next month, when Mars backs into the murky depths of Scorpio.

Before he changes sign, his partner Venus leaves home for a flit-and-flirt-fest in Gemini and has a staring contest with him on the 24th. This face-off drives home the distance between desires and achieving them. He takes that awareness along on his Scorpio mission, which explores loose ends from last summer, when Saturn retrograded over the same turf. Think of it as a clean-up crew in military gear, with tactical weapons, surgical tools and steely determination to tackle whatever they encounter.

The end of the month brings awareness into focus in other ways as well. Rules and limitations mushroom to the point that we address them, thanks to a harsh contact between Jupiter and Saturn, which crests on May 26. Our thought processes and information flow clarify dramatically by the 30th, when Mercury gets an effortless assist from Pluto. The point of Mercury’s retrograde becomes clear (or some of it, at least). Thinking and priorities streamline. Important information comes to consciousness; significant conversations occur. Perhaps empowering, perhaps delimiting, and definitely transforming and simplifying.

Time for another round of talk and travel slowdowns and confusion! Mercury’s joining four other planets on the retrograde bandwagon. It’s inching us back over previously traveled turf – assuming it feels like it’s moving at all. No worries. Venus is going home to Taurus. Everyone’s gonna stop and smell the roses, eat bon bons and take their sweet time …. (Consult my Mercury retrograde survival guide.)

Every full moon cliche is coming out with this month’s Scorpio Full Moon: Over-the-top emotional outpourings. Reality TV spilling over into real life. Emergency rooms beyond capacity. Long-simmering pots boiling over with primal impulses, obsessions and toxic waste. Instant clarity, if not karma.

It’s a howl-worthy moon, bringing out the werewolf in each of us. You’d think it was Halloween, so thin is the veil between the worlds, not to mention between sanity and utter lunacy. Hold on to that parallel. Halloween’s a time to live with, play with and take charge of things that scare us, and this Full Moon offers that gift as well.

Intense, dark and potentially scary are the province of any Scorpio Full Moon, but this one is extreme. It coincides with a cosmic drill boring deeper and deeper into situations, into patterns and into our very beings. Resistance is futile; we have no option but to submit.

The two forces behind the drill are this Moon’s modern and traditional rulers, Pluto and Mars. both of which have just gone retrograde. They embody will and aggression, mere mortal level and higher level, and their drive to achieve and acquire and survive is spinning in place under this Moon, before each of them moves backward over territory we have already covered.

What they’re triggering has been building for years. (Pluto’s hitting a sore point that’s been getting a pounding for four years or more.) We are all too aware of some of what’s surfacing, and are ready to let it. Almost to the point of desperation. Even let it go. The gods of war and death are not merely making purging and release possible, but are also packaging that option as appealing and desirable (which might inspire the occasional outcry of “Make it quit!”)

This Moon is also summoning a cosmic zombie invasion, as matters we thought were dead and buried are now rising up, standing in our way and, in some cases, coming after us. Tricks of perception are in the mix as well — your worst fear materializing in front of you, then turning out to be a weirdly shaped stain or a pile of leaves when the light goes on.

All this comes with spaciness. (Anyone else losing track of objects, not to mention their mind?) And details bordering on the surreal. (Sex toys, sex practices and a candidate’s nude portrait showing up in political discourse? How so very Scorpionic.) And potential for profound, nigh on magical healing.

Credit for this goes to the unimpeded flow between Pluto in structure-loving Capricorn and Chiron in all-encompassing Pisces. Chiron was an immortal who became human to be able to die and gain relief from a wound that would not heal. He embodies both an abiding wound and coming to peace with it by accepting and mastering physicality. The link between Pluto and Chiron has been in place for months, and Pluto’s turn-around is making the waters swirl a bit just now, creating currents for particles that have been lurking below to emerge.

As they bob to the surface, a clean-up crew is in place. Jupiter in Virgo, himself retrograde for weeks now, is at the ready to turn his fix-it tear to Pluto’s ends. This offer is the silver lining in any darkness summoned by this Moon. (So is the healing link to Chiron.) Grab it. Work it. Ask for help; take a baby step; dive into whatever yawning crevice has deepened before you. The opportunity aspect between Jupiter and Pluto makes transformation and renewal possible with ease and efficiency — and results that border on miracles.

Go beyond appearances. This Moon holds the power to move beyond treating symptoms to addressing their causes. This factors instinctive, persistent reactions and patterns into the clean-up. Thinking and attitudes play a huge role as well.

Not everything that comes up now will be life and death, or high-level drama, or the stuff of a B horror film, or even particularly terrifying or painful. Some of it involves evaluating return on investment and rectifying accounts, emotional and energetic as well as financial. Don’t discount the seemingly trivial. It carries a potential for clearing, releasing and healing, whether anyone’s screaming or crying or writhing in agony or not.

In some way, every incident entails an evolve-or-die moment. Every emotion, every outburst, every loss of conscious control comes with the invitation to deal with longstanding matters once and for all. Clean the closet. Take out the garbage. Dump the baggage.

So what if you’ve done this before? Another round of cleaning is in order now. This Moon has the tools and the motivation to go deeper, more effectively and more efficiently. Don’t take the process so seriously, either. Dress up. Have fun. Laugh at the over-the-top developments, at the absurd intensity and, most of all, at yourself. Let your inner werewolf out and howl.

Backtracking. Eruptions from the depths. Evolve-or-die moments of the heart (and the bank account). Howling-level full moon, complete with healing crises. You know, another garden variety week. Don’t panic. As Joni reminds us, laughing and crying, it’s all the same release.

You know what you want. Now come incentive and drive to go for it. Information flows and grows … and then it’s time to turn around and head back over territory you thought you’d covered. Some of that flowing info may come in handy

Eclipse season is going out with a bang. No, April’s Aries New Moon isn’t an eclipse, yet it may as well be, for the wallop it packs. This one does more than supercharge life force and shake off the doldrums of winter, the usual gifts of the first New Moon of spring. A fuse that’s been burning for years is hitting dynamite and igniting impulses that are catalyzing, propelling and unstoppable, forcing constraints and growth to explode.

Just as long brewing situations are being pushed out of the birth canal, each of us is being awakened and activated. Developments are blossoming in areas of life (and our beings) that have been pummeled and tenderized and reshaped for upwards of four years. This is not a moment to think, weigh or debate. We’re at a rare convergence of motivation to act and an environment that openly encourages action.

In many cases, we’ll jump at the first opportunity. That’s how primed we are — not just for something to give, but also for bold, radical breakthroughs, the fresh horizons and breathing room that allow us to move more freely and be more truly ourselves. Even if we’re not consciously ready, we’re becoming quick change artists all the same, all of us. Pressure’s building to unavoidable breaking points. Circumstances (and some people) will give way in a blink of an eye, and off we’ll fly.

Some of the playing out may cause dizziness. Some may be disorienting or breathtaking or cause after-the-fact stage fright. (There won’t be time for that in advance. ) It won’t be willy-nilly, though. Some of the firepower will even be surprisingly controlled, and some will lead to places that inspire and deserve commitment.

One reason for this is the prep we’ve been doing for years. Another is the grounding that precedes the New Moon, when the Sun and then the Moon make a stabilizing link with order-loving Saturn in Sagittarius. After he pours wisdom, experience and a high-energy, broadened outlook into them, they then go up against the foundational restructuring Pluto in Capricorn is fostering. The effect is like a track and field event many of us were put through in phys ed class, the standing broad jump: training and building up strength, especially mentally, then pushing your weight deep into the earth so your energy coils like a tightening spring, then flinging yourself forward as far as the pressure will take you.

And the fuel for that flight? It comes from Uranus, agent of radical, volatile, unpredictable change, standing right by the New Moon. He and his lightning bolts are the first influence the Moon and then the Sun cross after they leave each other. He’s the reason for the current shatterings, breakthroughs and split-second timing. Not all will occur out in the world, although much of it will. A lot of it will be on the mental level (Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury,the cosmic messenger) — shifts in perspective, minds unlocking and viewpoints tilting on their sides. Other people may shock you. You may well surprise yourself, too.

You may, of course, harness this energy source for your own conscious purposes. It has the power to break you out of all manner of stuck places, or speed along some personal development that you’ve been wanting.

Not all of this New Moon’s gifts permit planning or steering, though. There will be times when motivation rises in you unexpectedly and you Have To Do Something, right then. Times when conditions morph or events happen so quickly all you can do is think with your feet. Times when a window opens and suddenly you’re in exhilarating, even risky circumstances and later, after you’ve caught your breath, you’re not sure whether you jumped or fell or were pushed (and likely the distinction won’t matter; likely you won’t care).

There’s little point in predicting specific events, or the timing of certain developments that you are oh-so-sure are on the way. Maybe they are; maybe they’re not quite what you think. With Uranus in the middle of this Moon’s action, anything could happen. Stay loose and open to possibility. And enjoy the ride.